The word 'play-offs' is not being banned in the Brentford dressing room, with the Bees now closing to within four points of the top six.

The west Londoners gave the rest of the division a head start by going winless in their first seven games but have been clawing their way back since then.

And Ryan Woods insisted that the top six remains their target after they made it three wins out of three over Christmas, beating Norwich, Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday.

“We're allowed to talk about it. We've made no secret of it and we believe we're good enough to be around that. We've shown what a good team we are and take that into Tuesday and Wolves,” he said.

Ryan Woods challenges Samuel Saiz (Image: Getty Images Europe)

“It has been a good Christmas. It's nine points out of nine and you'd class the teams we beat as big teams and big names. We've averaged two goals a game and nine points.”

Woods had a chance to score his second goal of the season but a fine Joe Wildsmith save denied him.

He added: “I had a good chance – they don't come around often for me. He's made a good save and made a couple of other saves and kept them in the game. We felt comfortable tonight and long may that continue.”

There were concerns before Florian Jozefzoon made it 2-0 with 10 minutes to go that the Bees' dominance wouldn't result in a victory but his strike settled any nerves.

Woods added: “It's always going to be the case with the amount of chances we had but couldn't convert. Flo had composure at the end and the extra goal cushion it felt very easy.”